spritechan | 7// Middle school antics and ripping back (not frogging)

Another day, another fail at waking up. However, the difference here is that I was able to wake Steve up in time for him to shower (and for me to lay in bed for 15 more minutes because I'd showered at night), and actually sit up with coffee. That was nice, minus the fact that I pretty much dreamed all night about heartburn I was having in real life, and woke up a bunch of times in burning pain. Ugh, awful. Heartburn is the worst. Also I stayed up until basically midnight because I am stupid as hell and midnight is the time my body naturally wants to go to bed, even though I am supposed to wake up at 5:30.

The morning was interesting, Vincente just got back from a week trip to Florida and came back with a terrible potty mouth and complete lack of respect for basically everyone. I redirected his nasty comments for about 10 minutes before I told him I needed to take him to reset so we could get a handle on it. He's funny because he will curse up a storm around me, tell me no, and ignore my requests for him to stop, but he has never actually sworn at me or NOT come with me when I've laid down a consequence. So I went in Tealie's room to grab write-ups for him, Malik and Isaiah (who were also fucking around). I always do these things matter-of-factly like, "Well fine, I guess this is the choice, I wish you made a different one now both of our lives are going to get temporarily derailed brb" and not like "YOU ARE PUNISHED I AM MAD." While I was getting the write-ups they were still goofing off, and Brian made the mistake he does of getting involved, and he fucking opens the door (disrupting Tealie's morning meeting) to ask if I was handling the situation EVEN THOUGH I could hear all three boys yelling that I was taking them to Reset. And then proceeded to bitch at me about their lack of listening. Which, again, I told Malik and Isaiah to go into Tealie's room and I would be back for them when I was finished with Vincente (we process with one kid at a time for obvious reasons), and they went and Tealie said Malik was good once he was in the room and Isaiah walked out once but came back. Pretty good for them.

When we were in Reset, Vincente was acting pretty petulant (again, more around me than at me) but he answered my questions and we would meander away from the topic and come back to it as I asked questions about his trip. I didn't figure out why he was being so rude, but we talked about his behavior in general and his mood and developed a plan to get back on track. He still was struggling with his rude behavior towards both peers and staff on the way back to class, but once we got in the room, his behavior returned to normal and he was in a pretty good mood and joked around with us and eventually got started on some work. He's proably overwhelmed from missing so much school, and it's hard to build up the resolve to catch up when you're so behind. Halfway through class, a behavior point sheet showed up for him from Brian, which we scored together at the end of class.

Tealie has been teasing other boys for copying Malik's habit of wearing his hood up. Malik's hood is not a battle I fight, because he doesn't make his hood an issue. When Jocelyn said she was going to be strict about hoods, I did have him meet with Elba when he refused to adhere to the expectation, and nothing changed, so I assumed it was okay for him specificially. I'll write it into his IEP for next year that he can have his hood with no penalty, because it's such a frickin SMALL thing. Anyway, boys copy Malik by wearing their hoods now (but NEVER say "But Malik gets to!!" when called out), and Tealie has found that by pointing it out ("Wow, you must really look up to Malik to copy him!" etc.) their hoods magically come off when we're not looking. Haaa. It's hilarious.

For 2nd block I had promised the kids we'd go outside today because it's supposed to be cold and rainy tomorrow (for Fun Friday), and even though it was a little chilly, we stuck it out. The first group were silly and being kids playing tag while Chanel and I talked, and the 2nd group was only 4 of them and they were playing on the swings and then demanded I take pics of them.

Elijah (2nd from the left) made these funny faces for every pic. They are all so goofy. Dyshawn there on the right trying to look tough but he's just as young in his heart too. The other day he hurt himself messing around and asked me to rub his shin and when I refused, he pulled a tablecloth over his head, said "RIP Dyshawn" and later rose up as a zombie version of himself. He also asks me to push him on the swings every day. XD I LOVE MIDDLE SCHOOL!!

After that I ran quick to Nokomis, talked with a couple people about my leaving at the end of the year, and then I met Steve for lunch. Lunch was good, we had Naf Naf Grill. If you have a Naf Naf in your area and have never been there, GO! Their hummus bowls are to die for, especially if you add couscous or rice. A bowl is the way to go because they give you a pita anyway!! Like, why get a pita if you can have a bowl AND a pita?! Their falafel is delicious as are the sauces, and don't even get me STARTED on the pickles. Tasty. Since Steve is quitting soon he took full advantage of an hour and that was really nice. I love seeing him in my day, it really helps me survive and picks up my mood.

When I got back to Nokomis I mostly putzed around until my meeting at Parkway. We talked about plans for next year, but I really wanted to leave by 3:30 to pick up Joe Waid, so I left at that time but ran into Hser (student) on the way out. She always has a hug ready for me, and she asked me a bunch of questions about my plans for next year, saying I should look for somewhere I can be full-time again (I haven't told the kids yet of course), and saying I can'tcome work at the high school she's going to because she wants us to be Snapchat/FB friends (she knows I have a policy of not being social media friends with active students, though I allow them to message me if they have questions or things for me). Then she told me she's going to really need help with math next year and we need to set up "dates" after school. Awww. I love Hser. She also talked about how she doesn't like Steph (music) or Jen (bitch I also hate) and that Jen makes her meet with her as the school counselor and Hser said she makes it a point to tell Jen that me and Nicki are her favorite teachers for a variety of reasons.

Andy caught me on the way out, telling me all the reasons why he has been thinking about the fact that I'm leaving next year and how he turned down a sweet position because he thought he was building a program and now Jocelyn is trying to mix ASD and EBD and now his ASD students aren't getting any services and he can't select his own staff anymore and Jocelyn isn't following through on disciplining shitty staff etc. etc. etc. All points I have also voiced and was frustrated with. We talked about it, standing by my car for another half hour, mostly him venting all the things I agree with. It ended with him telling me to keep an eye out for an ASD position.

I picked up the Joe Waid and we met Steve at home. We all chatted for a bit, catching up on the general happenings in each other's lives, and then I finished the first of fingerless mitts I'm making for Mom, while Steve started Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on XBox360 and Joe Waid looked at his phone for awhile before deciding to start Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Forgotten Sands looks really good, from my perspective, like a prettier version of Sands of Time on PS2. It has everythign a good Prince of Persia game should, at this point. I'm excited to see how it all plays out.

I was really excited to have finished one glove, until the light caught the ball of yarn. To my extreme dismay, I realized that i had been knitting with blue for the cat heads when I wanted black (my mom and stepdad have 2 black cats). To be fair it's a really dark navy, but the fact still remains. I lamented and mourned for the next hour or so, before resigning myself to the fact that I just have to rip back and start over with black. Ugh. This is coming on the heels of the older ladies in one of my podcasts (2 Knitlit Chicks) saying you never grow out of making dumb mistakes, like knitting with the tail end of your yarn or accidentally getting turned around in your knitting or twisting your yarn when joining ends. It was really funny to listen to, and reminded me of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (YarnHarlot) telling many a funny mistake story, but when YOU are the one making the mistake, it's the goddamn worst!!! I was really hoping to have them done to like, mail to my mom tomorrow since I'm not seeing her this weekend. Alas, I need to do it right. I can't tolerate blue cat heads. I want gloves she'll be really happy to wear, and black cats are the way to go. Lucky for me I have a 5+ hour drive ahead tomorrow with Steve on down to Madison to rectify and redeem myself.